A Bursary fund programme in South Africa has been accused of denying access to students of Indian descent, sparking controversy over the alleged discrimination.
The Thuthuka Bursary Fund is a programme accredited by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA).
Annually, between 250 and 300 Thuthuka bursaries are awarded for undergraduate BCom Accounting degrees, to students who come from disadvantaged communities, but excludes South Africans of Indian descent.
According to the SAICA, there is a clause in the Bursary fund's requirements that restricts applications to students from the African and coloured (mixed race) groups only.
Defending the move, the SAICA said, it had adopted this approach as a development model for the two previously disadvantaged communities, because its own membership from the white and Indian community group showed there were more qualified chartered accountants from these groups than from the other two which were "lagging seriously and generationally behind."
This led to SAICA deciding to establish the Thuthuka Bursary fund specifically to increase the number of chartered accountants in the African and coloured communities, it said.
Social activist Yusuf Abramjee said the approach was discriminatory and not in keeping with the well-known official government position of Indians having been part of the previously disadvantaged communities in the country under the minority white apartheid government.
"This arbitrary decision appears to be based on the view that all Indians are wealthy enough to send their children to university, which is definitely not the case, Abramjee said.
"Many parents have for generations worked very hard together with other family members to ensure a better life for their children, often with great personal sacrifices in the face of apartheid discrimination," he said.
"I know of no other institution in the public or private sector using such a discriminatory approach to bursaries and will consider taking this matter to the South African Human Rights Commission," he added.
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